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eMOLT Update 2024-03-15
Weekly Recap
This week, we had a great initial meeting with a team from Rutgers
University led by Kacey
Coleman and Dr. Thomas
Grothues and Capt. Kevin from the F/V Dana Christine II about
bringing more eMOLT systems to the Mid-Atlantic. If all goes well, we
hope to develop a similar partnership to what we’ve built with the
Lobster Institute at UMaine that has allowed an expansion of eMOLT in
small ports Downeast. Thanks to all the New Jersey captains I’ve spoken
with recently for your patience. We’re working on finding a long-term
sustainable way to bring you all online.
Last Friday, Nick Lowell joined part of the Study Fleet Field Team in
Point Judith to take another stab at installing a temperature / depth
monitoring system on the F/V Nicholas C. The system on this vessel will
be the first field trials of a new logger produced by Nick and his team
at Lowell Instruments. Similar to the blue Moana loggers from New
Zealand that many of you already have, the Lowell TDO logger is able to
collect water temperature profiles. These new loggers also include an
orientation sensor, which could help better understand how gear behaves
underwater. If the testing goes well, this could provide the eMOLT
program another tool to monitor oceanographic conditions and gear
performance.
George and Cooper were out in Seattle last week at the World
Fisheries Congress. For those who are unaware, the WFC is a meeting held
every few years to bring together fisheries scientists, managers, and
stakeholders from around the world to share research and best practices.
Some of the highlights:
Jordi Ribera from The Catalan Institute of Research for the
Governance of the Sea (ICATMAR) in Spain walked us through the online dashboard
they’ve developed for making fishermen-collected data more accessible
and usable by their industry partners. ICATMAR has a program similar to
Study Fleet that collects data on fishing effort and conducts biological
sampling, but they also charter industry vessels for their trawl survey
(individually selectable trawl paths in the dashboard are from chartered
survey trips).
The role that programs like eMOLT could play in fisheries science
was emphasized again and again, with many speakers lamenting the need to
rely on models for environmental variables instead of having real-world
data available. Another theme that was repeated again and again was the
need to develop lasting relationships and build trust if we’re going to
manage fisheries well. Dr. Michael Ntiba from the Kenyan Ministry of
Fisheries said that “short term projects can do more harm than good.
They collapse at the end and the next project must begin at step one,
all over again.” This constant rebooting can be exhausting, especially
for stakeholders. So, thank you all for your willingness to participate
in this program. The core eMOLT team is in it for the long haul, and we
hope you are too.
There was also a call for those of us in the science and
regulatory worlds to do better at streamlining systems for those of you
out working on the water. This cartoon was from a presentation about
cooperative research from Ireland. The acronyms on the left hand side
are an alphabet soup of Irish regulatory agencies including
- Sea Fisheries Protection Authority
- Marine Survey Office
- Health and Safety Authority
- Dept. of Agriculture, Food, and Marine Resources
- International Transport Workers Federation
I’m sure the fisherman’s acronym on the right hand side needs no
explanation.
For those of you who’ve ever attended cooperative research summits or
other meetings involving the fishing industry, it’s perhaps no surprise
that those can get testy at times, especially around topics like
offshore wind. What may surprise our industry partners is that these
science conferences aren’t all kumbayah and handholding either. The
session on bottom trawling got pretty spicy with scientists debating how
much of an impact the gear has on benthic ecosystems and carbon
sequestration.
Data portal access
For fishermen currently participating in the eMOLT system, you
already see the plots of data from your vessel in the wheelhouse, but
did you know you can look back at historic data from your vessel through
a secure, online dashboard developed by our colleagues at Ocean Data
Networks?
Check out a
demo using data from traps deployed by the F/V Lucky Catch and F/V
St. Croix, two lobstering tour boats operating in Casco Bay. If
you’d like to see data from your vessel, click here to sign
up for a password-protected account.
Bottom Temperature Forecasts
We’ve had requests for a few additional features, but haven’t had
time to implement them yet. We’re also working on a way to deliver these
forecasts directly to your deckboxes, so stay tuned…
Northeast Coastal Ocean Forecast System (NECOFS)


Doppio Bottom Temperature Forecast

New Research
- Our FVON colleagues at AdriFOOS in Italy recently published a paper
about the impacts environmental observations from fishing vessels can
have on forecast models. In their case, they saw 44% reduction in root
mean square temperature errors in the upper water column and 36%
reduction in the lower layers. The full paper is available here
These are major improvements in forecast models and are only possible
thanks to collaboration with the fishing industry
Announcements and Other News
For Massachusetts fishermen: South Fork Wind (owned by Ørsted)
announced that their eligibility application for direct compensation has
opened for commercial and recreational fishing vessels that have
experienced economic impacts from construction and/or interruptions
during operation from offshore wind vessels operating in the South Fork
Wind Project Area. PKF O’Connor Davis (PKFOD), the third-party
administrator for South Fork Wind, will be reviewing and processing
eligibility and direct compensation claims. For more info, click
here
The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation is hosting several
workshops in March to help understand how changing ocean conditions
might impact the scallop fishery and the communities it supports.
Workshops will take place on March 19, 21, and 22, and will focus on how
the industry can help monitor these impacts and adapt to them. For more
information, please visit the CFRF
website or contact Victoria
Thomas.
On-demand lobster and Jonah crab gear testing is underway off
Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Science Center scientists are working
with commercial lobster vessels to test on-demand (ropeless) fishing
gear in state and federal waters normally closed to lobster and Jonah
crab fishing with static vertical lines. Testing in this area will occur
through April 30, 2024.

Because on-demand gear has no surface buoys, it won’t be visible at
the surface. To visualize the gear positions and orientations, mariners
can download and subscribe to the EdgeTech Trap Tracker app ($25) on the
Apple
or Google
Play app stores. For more information on this work, click here.
Mariners: There is a potential gear conflict area immediately west of
the Great South Channel in former Groundfish Closed Area 1. On-demand
gear in that area is set northwest to southeast in trawls approximately
1.5 nautical miles in length. If anyone accidentally tows up the
on-demand gear, don’t discard it. Hold onto the gear and contact our
Gear Research Team. Contact info can be found here.
All the best,
-George and JiM
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